


Know the Steps

by callmejude



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:22:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1438111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmejude/pseuds/callmejude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Bucky's last night before he ships off, and he wants Steve to enjoy himself. Alternate scene for when Steve and Bucky part ways at the fair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Know the Steps

“Steve, c’mon, it’s my last night.”

“You can go back out there. Both dames like you better than me, anyhow.”

Bucky frowns. “That’s not true,” he says, but Steve knows he’s only trying to make him feel better. When he doesn’t say anything, Bucky pushes on, “Look, this isn’t about the dames, Steve, it’s about you. I’m gonna miss having you around, kid.”

“I’ll get there,” Steve insists. It sounds more bitter than he wants it to. His hope is starting to wane.

Bucky sighs, throwing an arm over Steve and leading him away from the fair. “Is this because you’re such a bad dancer?”

“I’m half a foot shorter than that girl, Buck,” Steve groans, “I’m half a foot shorter than most of the girls in that joint.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Bucky says with an infuriating level of patience. “You just gotta learn the steps. Look, c’mere.” He takes Steve by the hand and leads him back to the dance hall, but instead of dragging him back inside, Steve follows Bucky to the back alley. Steve looks curiously back at the building, Artie Shaw oozing out into the street from behind the walls.

“What’re we doing?”

Bucky smiles at him, “I’m gonna teach you to dance, c’mere.”

Steve blinks at him. “You’re - huh?”

Bucky’s grip slips to Steve’s hand before he can pull away, tugging him close enough to put his free arm around his waist. “It’s easy, just pay attention.”

“Buck,” Steve doesn’t mean to sound so flustered, but his voice is too quiet under the music for Bucky to hear him, anyway.

“Here, I’ll lead first, and then let you take over, all right?” He pulls Steve closer to his chest and Steve can feel his heartbeat.

“Okay,” Steve mutters, looking at their feet. He watches Bucky step back, trying to follow in step as he steps with slow, flowing movements into a square and back again. 

Bucky lets him watch their feet while he leads, but as the next song starts, thankfully even slower than the last, he says, “All right, your turn.”

Embarrassed, Steve nearly trips over Bucky’s feet in a residual urge to follow, but quickly rights himself and tries to remember the way Bucky’s feet were moving. He makes the box with his feet twice before Bucky says, “Look at me, now. You can’t spend all night looking at her shoes.”

When Steve looks up, Bucky’s grinning at him. “Not so hard, is it? You just gotta give yourself a chance.”

“Easy for you to say,” Steve answers with mock bitterness, “Kinda hard to practice dancing without a second person to give you a chance.”

Bucky shrugs. “That’s what I’m here for.”

Steve feels inexplicably shy, and drops his eyes back to his feet. Twenty-four years old and the only person willing to dance with him is his best friend out of pity.

“Hey.” Bucky slides a finger under Steve’s chin to meet his eyes again. “Focus up here. How’re you ever gonna get that kiss if you’re staring at her shoes?”

The air behind the dance hall is hot and muggy, and Steve feels sweat rolling down the back of his neck. His feet stop moving, and so does Bucky. For a moment, nothing moves at all, and then Bucky’s hand slides around to the back of Steve’s neck. 

“I - I don’t -” Steve’s voice catches in his throat. He isn’t sure if Bucky wants an answer or not. He isn’t even sure what Bucky even asked, all he heard was the word ‘kiss’ and the curious lilt at the end of his sentence.

Bucky’s smile wavers, slightly, and Steve feels his hand in his hair. “Steve…” his voice has gone soft, barely audible over the still thriving music. Steve opens his mouth to ask what’s wrong but before he can, Bucky leans forward and kisses him.

His mouth is soft and warm and he still tastes a bit like the cigarette Steve caught him sneaking about an hour or so earlier while his date was in the bathroom. He kisses with a gentle sort of lead, like their dancing had been, and without any prior experience or frame of reference, Steve freezes.

Freezing is apparently the wrong thing to do, because Bucky starts to pull away. Steve doesn’t want him to, so the hand still resting on Bucky’s shoulder clenches tight in his uniform and pulls him close.

The kiss breaks for an instant, Bucky chuckling against his mouth, before drawing him back in. Steve still isn’t quite sure how to kiss back, but doesn’t want Bucky to try and pull away again, so he let’s out a noise he’d only meant to be appreciative but probably sounds closer to a moan.

Before Steve can be embarrassed Bucky shivers, leading Steve backward until his back is pressed against the brick of the dance hall. Artie Shaw is still blaring from inside, something a little faster now, and Steve feels his pulse thrumming in his neck. He feels dizzy.

Bucky’s hands are on his face, hot enough to burn into Steve’s skin. He mumbles something against Steve’s mouth but all Steve can hear is his own pounding heartbeat and their breathing and the muffled crash of the band inside.

Suddenly, a thought occurs to him like cold water pouring over his head.

“Buck - Bucky,” Steve hisses, pushing him back just enough to speak, “The - the girls, you left the girls alone inside?”

Bucky stares at him blankly for a second, then laughs, breathless and with a tinge of fond exasperation. “You’re too good for your own good, you know that?”

Steve grins at him. He feels light, pressed against the wall. Protected. Bucky’s always been good at that. “Yeah, you never stop telling me,” he answers back.

Bucky chuckles and cuffs his shoulder. “All right,” he says, “Stay out of trouble. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“No, don’t, I -” the words come out of Steve’s mouth before he can really stop them, and Bucky looks back at him, confused. “Don’t. Stay and keep them company.”

“Steve, I told you. It isn’t about them, it’s -”

“I know,” Steve says hurriedly, “I just don’t...I don’t want someone else’s date.”

Bucky sighs, smiling. “Too good for your own good,” he repeats, kissing the top of Steve’s head. “All right. We won’t count this, if you don’t want. When I get back, we can have a real date, just you and me. Sound good?”

Steve nods, glances back at the floor. “Yeah, sounds good.”

Bucky pulls his eyes back up to meet him. “No lookin’ at my shoes,” he says, punctuating the order with a chaste kiss on the mouth before turning on his heel. “When I get back I’ll take you dancing so you can show off everything I taught you.”

Wandering back home, Steve passes the enlistment office again. He hesitates a moment before ducking inside, ignoring the sound of Bucky’s _stay out of trouble_ echoing in his head.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written for comic book fandom in a million years and I honestly don't plan to ever again but my gf and I were talking about Bucky teaching little teeny Steve how to dance and this happened and I'm not TOO sorry.


End file.
